Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao made an agreement to nurse injuries in order to stop a 2015 super-fight from being called off.

As was officially revealed post-fight, Pacquiao had a bad shoulder ailment which ultimately required surgery.

The nature of the battle, which ended in a drab twelve-rounder which Mayweather took control of, meant some fans demanded their $100 Pay-Per-View fee back.

In a revelation four years on, Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach stated the Mayweather camp knew about the shoulder before the first bell.

With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, Team Mayweather made the decision to allow Pacquiao treatment. In return, Mayweather would be able to numb his brittle hands for the Las Vegas showdown.

Explained what went down, Roach told The Dan Patrick Show: “I didn’t try to stop that fight until I found out that the injury was that bad. That the injury on his shoulder would need surgery to fix.

“We were going to go into the fight with a bad shoulder. So we had an agreement that Mayweather could shoot his hands up (use a painkilling injection), which he does often, because he has very fragile hands.

“So he uses a painkiller that he has in his hands so he can get to a fight. And we had it that Manny could get a painkiller for his shoulder.

“But on the night of the fight, he was allowed to use it and we weren’t,” he added.

📸 Esther Lin

On the possibility of calling off the encounter, Roach concluded: “There was a lot of money at stake. I still feel bad about letting that fight go, but I wasn’t powerful enough to stop that fight from happening.

“There were big promoters and so much money. The payday was tremendous. But I don’t do this just for the money, I do it for the love of the sport.

“I didn’t think Pacquiao was capable of fighting his best fight one-handed.”

REMATCH

Talk of a second fight is filling the air in recent weeks. Mayweather and Pacquiao posted training videos simultaneously recently leading to more speculation.

Pacquiao is set to attend the Errol Spence v Mikey Garcia battle on March 16, in what some believe may be a smokescreen for Mayweather.

The first meeting garnered a whopping 4.6 million PPV buys. Projections for a rematch lie closer to 2.5m.

It’s still a hefty payday for both and a guaranteed nine-figure sum for ‘Money’ Mayweather.